If you have never graced the Metal Slug series before, you are truly missing out. For those of you old enough to remember the "glory days" of gaming, Metal Slug 7's visuals will make you reminisce for sure. The arcade-style graphics are outstanding and visually dynamic, as the series has always been.

While the DS may not be the most powerful system on the planet, there is no slowdown whatsoever present in the game. There is something to be said about that, especially considering that Metal Slug 7 is sprite-based and has a TON of on-screen action with bullets, explosions, and enemies all around you at all times. In a word, Metal Slug 7 is simply beautiful.

Just like the game's visuals, Metal Slug 7 has an authentic arcade quality to the audio. In fact, even through the less-than-stellar DS speakers, the game sounds great. I do recommend earphones, however, being that the auditory stimulus is even better. Every crack of the gun and missile being shot at you sounds great. The music present in the opening Menu brings you straight into the feel of the game as well, with its military theme and sound fx, and the background music present while in-game is dynamic and moving.

Let's see, what we've got here in this title that is exclusive to the Nintendo DS is an arcade shooter in the true sense of the words. Side-scroller? Check. Insane weaponry? Check. Frantic gameplay? Double-check! Metal Slug 7 is, if you will, a stereotypical arcade game from the '90s reinvented for your handheld on-the-go enjoyment, and it truly delivers.

Metal Slug 7 will have you working through seven stages, which isn't a lot in terms of number, but the challenging gameplay will likely make it feel longer. Still, it would have been nice to have a few more levels to traverse. At the end of each, you will also be faced with a boss battles that can be relatively challenging as well. After completion of each boss, you will unlock the different missions from the Main Menu, allowing you to revisit each without having to play through all of the previous missions.

Aside from the Main Mission, you can also play through 80 training missions by visiting the Combat School. These bonus missions vary widely in terms of content, but you can expect everything from item collections to freeing prisoners or war (POWs) and speed mission. Unfortunately, these training missions reuse the same levels as those present in the core gameplay. It would have been nice to have a few different areas to play through.

In all of the stages, regardless of modes, you will be able to choose from six different characters. Each of these characters has their own bio, but more importantly, they also have slightly different weapons' attributes. Some characters may be better at rapidly firing, for example, while others may have more powerful shots. Another attribute that generally differs is that some of the characters offer better close-combat abilities and others can more easily take down machinery like helicopters and tanks. In practice, however, it's hard to see much of a difference while playing the game.

The Metal Slug series has always been frantic with loads of on-screen firepower, both from your weapons and incoming shells from the enemy. With that said, the series has always been on the higher end of the difficulty scale, and Metal Slug 7 is no different. This game's difficulty more or less comes in the form of bullets, missiles, and a ton of other weapons of mass destruction filling the screen, with your job to not only shoot down baddies, but also navigate through their shots.

Another sense of difficulty comes in the form of figuring out the patterns of the different enemies and slugs. Most of the reoccurring soldiers and tank-type vehicles are predictable, there are sometimes new enemies appearing, requiring you to determine how to defeat them. The boss battles are even more evident of this, so it is easy to lose a lot of lives the first few times through each mission.

Metal Slug 7 allows you to choose from three difficulty modes for each mission, Beginner, Normal, and Hard. There is notable difference between the three, which can both add a little bit of replay value and give you a feeling of accomplishment when working your way through the missions on Hard.

The controls of Metal Slug 7 are as simple as the core gameplay. Shooting, jumping, and blowing things up essentially are based around three buttons, and there are a few special moves that can be performed as well. If you don't like the default controls, you can always switch them. Metal Slug 7 has the ultimate in custom controls as you can remap all of the buttons to your liking.

There is also the option to use an auto-fire feature, should you choose to enable it (it is set to OFF by default). I preferred this method to eliminate the feeling of this game being so much of a button-masher as opposed to a shooter. However, it should be noted that ammunition can be wasted using this option because the guns often don't shut off the instant you release your fire button.

Despite the great controls, there is one thing that Metal Slug 7 is lacking; especially since this title is exclusive to the Nintendo DS... the game really doesn't utilize the stylus. Sure, you can look at the map by navigating the touch screen, but there really aren't any custom controls or innovative use with the stylus. With that said, I am glad that Metal Slug 7 relies on arcade-style standard controls instead of messing with a winning formula.

Fans of Metal Slug will not be disappointed with Metal Slug 7. The difficulty of the game and the same great frantic gameplay of the series returns and the added bonus of the training missions of Combat School help add to its replay value a bit. It would have been nice to have a few more Main Mission levels and to have new levels for your training, but this is still a solid title that won't disappoint.